Enlightenment
by Still Bullet
Summary: What do you do when you get sick of City 17? Simple—you run away. But of course, you’ll always have the Combine on your tail. One-Shot.


_What do you do when you get sick of City 17? Simple—you run away. But of course, you'll always have the Combine on your tail._

_So…I finally joined this site. Normally I'm Candy-Ice on deviantART, but I figured I'll post my one-shots here too. You can check out my site for my other fan fictions._

_**Based on: Half-Life 2 (Valve)  
**__**Rating: In the middle between K+ and T—depends on how you think of it  
**__**Author's Notes: Basically just a writing experiment mixed with an idea I had for a while. Sorry if the ending sounds a bit like a pairing, that is not how I meant it to be at all.  
One-Shot.**_

**_--_**

Night. The stars, light that burned holes through the abyss of the dark side of the heavens, shone their beauty at this time. The moon, another world on its own side of the universe, standing out more than the rest as it always did when its shape was full. Some could easily agree that the night time filled the air with mystery and beauty.

But not in City Seventeen, where the pollution of the Combine's take-over of Earth filled the air instead with something that could be identified as lost hope. The street lights lit the deserted road with stripes of a bright orange overflow of light. Darkness crept around areas where the light bulbs could no longer live. That only reminded the young woman running down that lonely street about death that lurked in the corners.

Death. This place was full of it. _It's safer here_ was a lie she was told when she first got off that train; when she first entered this hell. When she first got a glimpse of that one man that they could call their "leader", their "savoir of humanity". A god on his own.

Safer. _Safer_. That one word and the sound of her running footsteps and pounding heart were the only things heard in the night to that being. Safer meant stopping that train to hell in the middle of the woods, having the Combine take her husband for questioning. Safer meant letting her wait there at the station she arrived at for hours on end for her husband to come. Safer meant him never arriving, and her getting threatened by a Metro Cop to get out of there before he beat her with that freaking stun stick of his, that was probably covered in misery and pain from all of the other citizens—prisoners, rather—that he beat them with.

_He_. Sure as hell wasn't a human anymore. "It" was more of a better term for that cop. She heard from people on the train about the Combine taking men and bringing them to this place—whose name was lost in the fear that currently overpowered her mind—to change them into these demons. Of course, they didn't take women to join their army, but something much worse seemed to be in store. Stalkers, she heard, that's what happened to women…some of the men, too. They take you and drain the life right out of you. Turn you into a slave, cut your legs off so you can't run away, cut your arms off so you can't fight back, rewrite your memories so it would seem as though you never existed before.

That's why she had to get out of here. That's why she ignored her roommates' warnings and ran outside in the middle of the night. Dodging Civil Protection wasn't an easy task. She heard that Striders patrolled this area, and that they could vaporize you in one shot. Hell, an APC could be on her tail right now. That could be footsteps of a group of soldiers chasing after her. Or it could be just her throbbing heart.

…she had to open her big, fat mouth. She had to think about the consequences instead of the freedom that lied before her. "Halt!" Anger swirling around that voice, inhuman, alien, robotic, what ever the hell the Combine were. It was right behind her, she could hear the pounding footsteps following her own from that Civil Protection officer. Or at least that's what she hoped it was. It could be a soldier, about to shoot her right on the spot if it had one of those alien pulse-rifles that she's seen before. Dying could be better than living in this hell, though.

No, that couldn't be. She was so close, _so close_ to freedom. She could even smell it: Right there; right in front of her. Other pairs of footsteps soon joined the one that was already behind her. She was being followed by a group, alright.

"Halt, citizen!" the Combine what-ever-the-hell-it-was shouted behind her. It was getting closer now, the others not sounding too far off. She had to lose them, some how. There was no way she could try and fight them.

Left. There was another street on the left. Yes, turn; keep running even if the energy in your legs is disappearing. A couple of sore muscles were better than having bullets in your back, losing blood, or having an insane amount of bruises, gashes, cuts, whatever. Or better than just losing your life all together, by death or by turning into one of those stalker creatures.

That better not be what she thought it was in front of her.

Oh no. Oh no no, _hell_ no. A dead end. There was a chain-link fence, right in front of her, mocking her with the block it had created to freedom. Heaven's gates won't open for you, she could hear it saying. They're out of room, but Hell's vacant. Stay here. After all, _it's safer here_.

Those soldiers were getting too close now…

Brain gears started spinning, the hamster started running; which ever way you thought about it, her brain started working twice as hard under pressure as she tried to think of another way out. The only thing that came to her mind in her panicked state was to climb it. But it was already too late.

She dropped to her knees, one hand slipping through the openings of the fence, and she began to break into tears. There was a soldier right above her, she could tell not only by the feel of the stun stick that lay on her shoulder, but by the aura of hatred surrounding it.

"We have an escaped citizen," the Combine said, as he was about to make a swing at her with his stun stick. _He, his_, no! _It!_ This was an alien behind her. It wasn't a human anymore; she already told herself that, it couldn't even be called a "he" anymore. The woman closed her eyes and let her hand limply fall down to her side. This is it. He's—it's—going to kill, right—

…now? What happened? Something had distracted that cop as the others finally arrived. Gunfire. All of the Combine turned around to find the source of the sounds that rang down the narrow street. The woman found this as an opportunity to turn around herself, as shock soon entered her brain.

That wasn't what she though it was, was it? Was that another Metro Cop running down the narrow street, its gun pointed at them? Either the Combine or at her, that was something she couldn't figure out. Stress was overloading her brain now. She closed her eyes tightly as she began to scream uncontrollably.

"Don't kill me, don't kill me, please!" rang out from her lips, her eyes becoming tightly sealed, although it still poured out tears. More gunfire, her hysterical cries following.

_BANG, BANG, BANG!_ Although it was only a pistol being fired, the sounds that escaped its muzzle sounded like a chorus of screaming souls.

"Don't kill me, please don't kill me," still rang out from the lips of the woman, trying to battle with the noises of death next to her.

It ended. The sounds had stopped. But the footsteps hadn't. They were slowly coming closer now, step by step, closer to her. "What is your name?" it asked, in the robotic-or-whatever tone.

"Don't kill me….don't kill me." She was either thinking or saying the words; she was still too terrified to tell. If the Combine won't kill her, than being scared to death will soon.

"Oh, sorry…" There was a pause. There was some kind of sound going on, right in front of her. The folding of clothes was the only thing that she recognized, but there was some other kind of sound going on, like something was being taken off of something else.

"Hey, it's all right." The voice wasn't alien anymore. It was…calm. Soothing. That wasn't a Combine soldier in front of her anymore. It could be tricking her, though. Didn't matter, she had to see what that was. She jerked her eyes open, seeing someone in front of her. She couldn't believe it: an actual _human being_. It was in a cop's outfit, but that was definitely a human face. Oh, what was she saying _it_ for; the Combine were inhuman, not this guy. There was actually a man in front of her, better show him some respect.

"You ok? Look, I'm sorry I gave you a scare, you see, I'm undercover. Forgot to take off my mask, did that just now." There was still shock fogging up the woman's mind, as she looked around for the Combine that were chasing after her before. There was one on the ground, one there, and there too. They were all on the ground, dead. There was a spot of blood on the wall, probably from the Metro Cop corpse closest to her. Damn, that was the one trying to attack her, wasn't it? In that case, it deserved having bullets in its body like that. Served it right.

The man shifted his vision to the blood on the wall. "Oh crap, I left a mess. Damn it." The woman changed her vision back towards him.

"Did you…did you kill them?" Shivering now, like a little Chihuahua, scared like someone tried to hurt it. Well, that was basically the situation now. The man gave a soft smile. Wow, an actual human emotion. He didn't seem to be faking it either.

"Yup. I'm not gonna hurt ya. See, I'm putting my gun down." He kneeled down and did just that; left the pistol on the ground. "Now, what's your name?"

Good question. It had been so long since someone had actually called her by her name that she had almost forgotten it. It was probably in the back of her mind, somewhere.

…found it.

"S—Sarah," she finally stuttered. That_ was_ her name, right? The man kept on smiling. Didn't matter to her, she actually liked it. It was the only act of kindness she had since she got here. Well, except from the few hello's that she had gotten from her roommates.

"Sarah, huh? I'm Barney. Here." He held his hand out to her. That was the way out of hell, right there. Take that, you stupid fence, aka "Gates of Hell". She didn't hesitate to grab it. Barney stood back up, helping Sarah get off of her knees and back on her feet.

"Ok, you want to get out of here, believe me, I know. I saw that group of cops chasin' after ya, so I came over and got them before they got you." He was looking at the corpses on the ground now. "Hey listen, I know a way that can get you out of here. You know where the train station is, yeah?"

How could she forget? It was the first place she went when she entered this hell. Well, maybe it wasn't hell anymore. She had an angel standing right in front of her.

"Yeah," she muttered silently. Barney's expression looked serious, but he still slipped Sarah a smile.

"Great, all you gotta do is just head to the back of that building. You'll come across a room that will lead you to a guy's lab, the person who owns it is named Doctor Kleiner, Isaac Kleiner. Anyway, he'll get you set up to head to another lab; it's a hell lot safer there. Tell him I sent ya."

That was the best news that she's ever heard in…damn, she couldn't even remember how long the Combine have been here. But she can remember that nothing good has happened after they came. Anyway, she was getting out of here, and that's all that mattered. Barney pointed at the street they had originally come from. "Take that street and head up, you'll see a street on the right, take that one instead. That'll start you off."

Sarah just couldn't stop staring at Barney. She didn't even let go of his hand. But he didn't seem to mind, he just kept that kind smile on his face.

"…thank you," she finally forced out of her lips. "Are you…are you coming?"

"Nah." Barney responded pretty quickly, even before Sarah had even finished her question. "I still have a job to do. Need to clean this all up."

Sarah could have sworn that time stopped right there.

"Well, go on, get goin'. I'll be fine, don't worry." Barney yet again pointed at the street. Sarah nodded, giving him another thank you.

"Hey," Barney suddenly said, as Sarah was about to round the corner. "Did you just hear a cat?"

"No."

"Alright, well, never mind. Hey don't worry, I promise you'll be fine. Now go on."

Sarah had never run so fast before in her life.


End file.
